A Wolf's Miracle

Epilogue

Harlan hugged me as soon as he could. Kissing me until our lips got numb.

"Are you okay?" He asked, running his hands all over my body to make sure I wasn't hurt.

"I'm fine," I said doing practically the same thing as I looked and found multiple wounds on him "How about you?"

"I'm okay because you are," he said, kissing me again. All the nerves and anxiety of the past few days were washed away by just being in his presence.

There was so much to do after the war was over. The burning of bodies was the most revolting for me. The smell of burning flesh would never leave my memory for as long as I lived. But it was fine because it was over.

The rebels were dead. The half-lings were captured, the vampires gone. And there was loss in the air, so much loss and heartache it was depressing. 

The ambient was awful but it all lightened up when Selene and Damien returned the next day along with Arden. They had somehow gotten a car and we all ran out of the house to greet them.

Selene was okay, a little pale and traumatized but okay. And in her arms, she was carrying the smallest, most precious little thing I had ever seen.

"Oh my god," I said as I beheld the sleeping baby. "So beautiful!" I exclaimed as Selene showed the baby to all of us, Damien was the portrait of male pride. His smile was brighter than the sun.

"It's a girl," Selene said with a smile twin to her husband's "Her name is Victoria" she announced and I thought I had never heard a name more appropriate. Then she opened her eyes and I couldn't help but smile as I saw them. So unique, so beautiful. One eye was lilac blue, like her mother's, and the other was half brown half green. She had sectoral heterochromia and it fit her somehow, for her it made sense. Which was weird because even though I had just met her, I felt like I knew her.

I looked at Harlan, his expression was stuck in complete awe as he beheld the little creature. Damien saw the same thing that I did and decided that he wanted to torture his brother"Sel, Harlan wants to hold her." Selene's smile was so big Harlan found no other option but to hold the little creature.

Victoria smiled at Harlan and he stared at her with panic, he was so afraid to break her that he could barely breathe. I decided to relieve Harlan of his duty as I picked her up as well, the most beautiful baby I'd seen in my life.

"Her eyes are so chic," Violette said with a sad smile "She's so beautiful, congratulations," she said sincerely but there was a twinge of sadness in her gaze. A twinge of something that told me there were still so many things we didn't know about our friend.

____

Two months after the war I found a note Harlan left on the bed, telling me to come to the house he had built - the house we spent our early mating days in. It was a short note, but it implied urgency. So I quickly made my way out of our room and followed the path I now knew so well.

With Victoria, things around the packhouse had been hectic, so Harlan and I took every chance we could to visit the beautiful house that hid comfortably in the middle of the forest. Things had been going great lately, peace was abundant and I was finally able to know the people of the pack better.

Selene and I personally took the task to help the half-lings adapt to their new life, making them comfortable with their new reality, and helping them accept the things they had done. While other packs have returned to their respective territories with some of the half-lings, we have kept the ones who were most affected and those from Miracle. Damien had them helping rebuild after the war, he said it would help them get their heads straight. And after everything they had seen and in some cases, done, they welcomed the distraction.

I was settling into my role as beta female and was surprised at how much women confided in me now, telling me their most intimate problems and hoping I could come up with a solution. 

"All part of the job" Selene had said. And I found out how truly community-based this society was. We all relied on each other in more ways than one. 

"Beta" a young girl I had come to know as Jolene said "Thank you for your advice, it worked wonders," she said, happily as I walked past the group of houses where the other pack members lived.

"I'm glad I could help," I said and was promptly approached by other people.

"Beta, I've been meaning to talk to you, there have been some scheduling issues with my patrol hours," a tall man said.

"Oh don't listen to him, beta" his mate joined the conversation "He's just lazy and doesn't want to do them!"  She was short and plump, and her personality was quite the opposite of her mate's.

"Would all of you stop hounding her, she clearly has somewhere to go" Dorothy, a nice old lady intervened and despite my saying they weren't bothering me they all went away.

"I promise I'll come by another time," I said as I continued my path to the house.

At first, when I got there all the lights were turned off. It was getting dark outside so I came near it carefully, mentally preparing myself for any threat as I opened the door. Damn it, I had told Harlan it was not a good idea to leave the doors unlocked.

The first thing I felt as I walked in the door was my mate's comforting scent. Then I saw the candles, one on each step up the stairs. I gasped, already on the verge of tears as I followed the trail into the big bedroom.

There were petals on the bed and their smell flooded over me as I smiled, looking around the room. Looking for him.

And eventually, there he was, wearing a goddamned suit. 

"Hey," I said, my voice cracking. "What is this for?" I didn't think it was a special date and Harlan didn't strike me as the person who celebrated monthaversaries. So there were two other possibilities, either this was just a cute gesture for nothing or it was a gigantic gesture that would mean everything.

He smiled as he took my hands "Do you like it?" he asked his voice calm and his eyes dancing with love.

"Of course!" I said kissing him sweetly "It's beautiful."

"Good," he said " 'Cause it's about to get really cheesy, so bare with me, I haven't done this before" he cleared his throat. Harlan wasn't nervous, he didn't get nervous, if anything he was uncomfortable "Look, at first when you told me you wanted to get married I thought it was unnecessary, but eventually I understood, for you it is as meaningful as being marked was for me." He took a deep breath but I was hardly breathing. "I have never in my life loved and longed for someone as much as you, and it still scares me, you terrify me all the time. You challenge me and save me from my demons and you love me even though I don't deserve you." I was about to cut in and protest but he cut in.

"I know you say I do. That's because you think I'm better than I actually am, because you make me better," he said, kneeling to the ground as he pulled out a black velvet box from his suit jacket and opened it. I didn't look at the ring, I was too busy looking at the love and passion his eyes held for me "I will love you until the day I die, and even after, because you are everything I never knew I needed so desperately. So Diana, will you marry me?" I think I was sobbing at this point, barely able to string along a coherent sentence, but somehow I managed to say yes as he placed the ring on my finger and kissed me.

And then he made love to me in every way known to man, and I felt it more and more. His undying and unending love for me. And I knew it then, I had known it for a while but it was confirmed.

Harlan was my destiny, he was my home. He was the shadow to my light.

And he kept my darkness away.